Several times a month, Jessica Wen, a pediatrician specializing in liver diseases, has a teenager show up at her clinic at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia with an unexpected diagnosis: hepatitis C.

Hepatitis C virus, or HCV, is the most common bloodborne infection in the U.S. and a leading cause of liver failure and cancer. Injection drug use is a common risk factor, as is receiving a blood transfusion before 1992. But some of the teens Wen sees picked up the illness another way: at birth, from their mothers.

“I have diagnosed moms after diagnosing the kids,” Wen said, referring to mothers who have hepatitis C, didn’t know it and then passed it to their babies during childbirth. Wen estimates that about 1 or 2 of every 1,000 young children have chronic hepatitis C.

A study by the Philadelphia Department of Health points to what Wen and others in the medical profession see as a worrisome trend: Children with hepatitis C may be unaware of their diagnosis and the potential need for treatments down the road in order to prevent long-term liver damage. [Read more…]

More than 90,000 people in Washington are likely infected with hepatitis C, an infectious disease which can cause liver damage, liver failure, and liver cancer, according to a new report by the Washington State Department of Health.

According to the report, there are about 550 hospitalizations a year in Washington state for hepatitis C-related illnesses, with expenses totaling over $22 million. In addiction, there are over 200 liver and bile duct cancers and 600 deaths in Washington every year linked to hepatitis C.

Most of those infected with hepatitis C were born during the “baby boomer” years of 1945 through 1965. They had high risk of exposure to infected blood through unscreened blood products, medical or dental exposures before modern infection control measures began, and injection drug use.

Recent spread of hepatitis C virus is occurring among younger people—mostly through sharing needles and other equipment used for injecting drugs. Hepatitis C can also pass from a mother to child during delivery. [Read more…]

By Judith GrahamKaiser Health News
After legal battles and lobbying efforts, tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C are gaining earlier access to expensive drugs that can cure this condition.

States that limited access to the medications out of concern over sky-high prices have begun to lift those restrictions — many, under the threat of legal action. And commercial insurers such as Anthem Inc. and United HealthCare are doing the same. [Read more…]

From Becker’s Infection Control & Clinical Quality

“A string of bad news at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle continues this week as the Joint Commission denied the hospital full accreditation after a surprise review in May revealed noncompliance with 29 standards, according to The Seattle Times. The accreditation announcement follows news of a possible hepatitis B exposure at the hospital affecting nearly 650 patients.” Full story…

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